In Praise of Summer Breeze

Sun, sand, surf, chicks, dudes, cruising, catchy tunes, giant sandwiches, laughing, loving. . .  SUMMER BREEZE (1981) has all of these elements in abundance.  

SUMMER BREEZE had a short run in theaters but aired for years on pay cable network Cinemax.

The plot is best summed up on the back of the VHS release.

SUMMER BREEZE was the last production from Muldoon Entertainment.  Prior releases were TROPIC OF RAPTURE (1976) and WANDA THE WICKED WANTON (1978).

Garret Muldoon had financial issues which led to substance abuse problems.  He took to huffing Easy-Off and died at forty-six years of age in 1989.

Director Jack Elliot had made the 1974 blaxploitation classic KANSAS CITY KINGPIN aka. MEET THE NEW MEAT MAN (US video retitling), about a black crime boss who tries to muscle his way into the white run beef industry.  After SUMMER BREEZE Elliot returned to the beach with SANDCASTLE WARRIORS (1983), a comedy about hard-core sandcastle building competitions.  

“Featuring Dash Warner, winner of the 1981 U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition and Sabrina Burns, winner of the 1980 World Sand Builders Cup."

For two of the leads, Sable Collins (Betty) and Jane Whitlock (Rhonda), this would be their only acting credit.  Sable Collins fell in love with a dentist, had her teeth capped and raised a family.  Jane Whitlock married an accountant, had her books balanced and raised a family.  

Bailey Sinclair (April) appeared in the sit-com, THE LAST DAYS OF ROOSEVELT HIGH (1982), which followed the exploits of a group of current students and alumni fighting the stuffed shirts, shady land developers and shadier bureaucrats, trying to save their beloved school from the wrecking ball and being closed permanently.  

The soundtrack is chock full of easy listening tunes that bring to mind the California beach lifestyle.  The lion’s share of the songs on the soundtrack were composed and performed by Sansabelt Island, a quartet of studio session musicians who were brought together just for this one-off project.  

Their songs do a good job at painting an oral canvas of the easy going, non-belt, preshrunk slacks beach lifestyle that was prevalent at that time.

Two of the songs became moderate hits.  

“VAN NUYS EYES” broke into the top forty at number thirty-eight and rose to thirty-three.  It held on for three weeks before falling off the chart.

Van Nuys eyes, Van Nuys eyes

Lovely little lady with those Van Nuys Eyes

Van Nuys eyes, Van Nuys eyes

Let me hold you tight, I see thru your disguise

Wednesday night cruising is the way to go

Ride’n in my Chevy van . . . we’ll take it nice and slow.

Van Nuys eyes, Van Nuys eyes

Lovely little honey with those Van Nuys eyes.

Van Nuys Eyes, Van Nuys eyes

It’s always more than advertised

Love to go cruising down VNB

Taking in all the pretty sights I see

Boogie down the Blvd. all night long

Cranking up the radio, hear my favorite song

 “Ramer Street”, which was the B-side, penetrated the Top-Forty to reach number thirty-five for one week, but dropped off.

I met a girl down on Ramer Street

With long blonde hair and no shoes on her feet

We started to dance, and she stepped on some glass

And I called for an ambulance.

The sirens wailed as we drove down Ramer

The red lights flashed as they tried to save her

I said all will be alright- tonight

  

In Praise Of Abigail Hayes

Maverick movie producer Rutherford T. Brady is famously quoted as saying that actress Abigail Hayes “Had a $1,000,000 body and a 10-cent brain.”  Brady’s next famous quote is “I got a mushy banana in my pants.”  So maybe Brady wasn’t exactly a quote machine, still, Abigail Hayes was able to cash in on and use her million-dollar body to full effect by starring in two movies.  First up was the Florida/Georgia lensed, OKEFENOKEE TANGO (1976).

OKEFENOKEE TANGO tells the tale of local small time marijuana dealers versus a big-time drug cartel that muscles in on their territory.  Hayes plays Birdie, one of the local dealers, who along with her boyfriend, Hank, and their friends, have to use their wits, her tits and their advantage of being on home turf to fight off the stylishly dressed Goombah intruders from Miami.  

Some highlights include a well shot airboat chase, silly swamp buggy races, seventies mob fashions and Abigail Hayes' $1,000,000 body . . . Even though we only get to see about $800,000’s worth.

OKEFENOKEE TANGO was a moderate hit and it unspooled for years on the drive-in circuit.

  

One of the films, and in particular Abigail’s admirers, was director Douglas Thacker, who had her in mind to star in his next feature, 1977’s high octane trucker/action film THE WILD ADVENTURES OF HONEY DOLL DAVIS.

PLOT:  Honey Doll is a feisty, over the road trucker, one of the few females making it in a heavily male dominated profession.  Honey Doll, who along with her bosom buddy Sugar Britches, who rides shotgun, toting a shotgun and a pair of non-stop fun bags, become the target of hijackers.

Sugar Britches was played by Tanya Trueblood, a brunette, amply bosomed, gap-toothed beauty, whose gap covered three of her top teeth, but none-the-less she was able to enunciate well enough and persevere to star in two more movies.  In 1979's UNFUNNY MONEY, Trueblood plays the girlfriend of a brutally unsuccessful prop comedian/counterfeiter, and in a made for television melodrama called THE SHAME OF SALLY HARDY (1981), she plays a woman running for a schoolboard election, whose past life as a nude mime comes back to haunt her (not so-much the nude part) and jeopardize her chances.

Hayes and Trueblood's chemistry on screen was solely due to their talent as actors, because off screen the two mixed like Joan Crawford and a wire hanger. 

DOUGLAS THACKER:  It was a constant competition between Abigail and Tanya.  Which one had the firmest breasts?  Which one had the smoothest legs?  Which one had the sexiest eyes?  Every day there was another argument and contest . . .  It got to a point where they decided to stage a soap box derby challenge to see who the better racer was.  They both designed, built, painted and raced their own cars. Tanya painted her soap box red with yellow lightning bolts. Abigail's was green and had her name in gold cursive.  Unfortunately, they picked an incredibly steep hill to race down, and they ended up crashing into each other and neither crossed the finish line.  The injuries were severe enough that they had to stay in a hospital for about a week, in the same room no less.  But in that time together, with no one else to talk to, they bonded and became friends.

Douglas Thacker's first film was 1974's political comedy COUNT DRACULA GOES TO WASHINGTON aka YOU CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON DRACULA.

PLOT:  The infamous Count is persuaded by a sleazy press agent to run for President.  He is elected and starts to bite his way through the three branches of government.  

In Praise Of Big Announcements

Master Praiser here, with a very special announcement. . .

Due to the over whelming success of our In Praise of Exploitation blog, we are pleased as punch to unveil our newest endeavor. . .  

This is a very special project that we have been toiling away on for a decade. . . A Book!

PRESS RELEASE*

In Praise of Exploitation blogspot announces the first release of our publishing wing, In Praise of Exploitation Press. 

Demented Dwarfs, Murderous Midgets and Lecherous Lil' People in the Italian Gothic Horror Film, Volume I, 1959-1963, or DDMMLLPITIGHF, for short, will be available for purchase on multiple platforms sometime in the future.

Hardcover Book

Softcover Book

No Cover Book

Cover With No Pages Edition

Edition Where Every Eleventh Word Is "Razzmatazz"

Kindle

Audible 

Who isn't afraid of those who are different from them?  Especially those who may have been born vertically challenged.  Movie history has shown time and again that people of small stature tend to be devious, conniving, violent, sex freaks (Denizens of Munchkinland excluded. . . Though, some of the members of the Lollipop Guild looked a little sketchy).   In the Italian gothic genre, these miniature men tend to be cretinous creepers, who live in dark castles, carrying out the bidding of a much taller person, typically a mad doctor or vampire.  Whether it be grave robbing, kidnapping, murder or reaching into those low nooks and crannies, that their normal sized betters can't get to, these unforgettable characters played a major part in the genre.

Book Factoids:

343 Not so Glossy, Black and White, Smudgy Pages

Language- English with a little Patois

Over 8 Illustrations!

Forward by renowned gothic film scholar Sir Christopher Berrycloth

Forward by renowned little person scholar Scooter MacTavish

Forward by nuts and berries expert Aspen Chandler

Finally!  The definitive study of a much loved, but woefully, inadequately covered genre of horror films.  Chapters on each film will include production histories, cast biographies, actor's heights - both in feet and inches and also centimetres and metres, in depth analysis, recipes and hints from Heloise.

As you can imagine, these are exciting times here at the In Praise of Exploitation blog. Rest assured that DDMMLLPITIGHF will not be the only special announcement from us, as our future contains, more books and merchandise out the ass. . .  Including T-shirts, watches, a line of craft beers and an adorable blanket.  We also plan to increase the awareness of this blog by branching out with a podcast, Facebook and Myspace pages.

We will keep you updated as more details become finalized.

* NOTE:  Book cover shown, may not be the final book cover

* NOTE:  Books final content may not be a reflection of books title